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CD48139 - 1/48 F-111A


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Now that I designed two future FB-111A sheets and have a good base for future F-111 subjects; I would like to work on an early F-111A sheet. I guess Combat Lancer aircraft are a must. What other F-111A subjects would you like to see on this sheet?

Edited by KursadA
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You, Sir, are a mindreader...

 

 I would like to suggest 1 or 2 of the grey/white pre-production birds, and add that 63-9767 was all-metal, and 65-5704 was white/grey with a black radome.

 

 ANY Constant Guard V/Linebacker bird.  67-0094 Tail code NA, is interesting in that it dropped Mk-48s on Cambodian gunboats, sinking one, during the Mayaguez incident on 14 May '75. There was a gunboat kill marking added. On 16 June, it collided with 67-111 on  a similar mission, and lost 4.5 feet of one wing. Unfortunately, 67-111 crashed.

 

 Disclaimer; all this from Don Logan's F-111 book.

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"Ranger 23" is an interesting story from "Operation Constant Guard V". Ship 67-0078 was finally found in Laos in 2000 and Maj. William Clare "Bill" Coltman and 1LT Robert Arthur "Lefty" Brett Jr. repatriated back to the U.S. and laid to rest in 2002.

http://www.f-111.net/combat/index.htm

 

And a pic of her sister ship 077

F-111_67-077.png

Edited by Hooker169
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A Constant Guard/Linebacker II bird would be interesting.  I'm looking to build Burger 54 that was flown by the father of a friend of mine from High School.

 

General Dynamics F-111A Aardvark 67-0092
“Burger 54”
Capt. Ronald D. Stafford
Capt. Charles Caffarelli
430 TFS, 474TFW
Operation Constant Guard
Takhli, Royal Thai Air Force Base
November 20, 1972

430th TFS tail code NA  Red Tail Stripe at top of fin

On 21 November 1972 Capt. Ronald D. Stafford (Pilot) and Capt. Charles J. Caffarelli (WSO) were flying an F-111A Aircraft #67-092, call sign Burger 54, on a combat mission over North Vietnam.  The crew was to fly a bombing mission against a target located in the vicinity of grid coordinates (GC) XE429479 (LAT/LONG 17.6131943°, 106.3468545°), with a time over target of 0252 hours.  The last known contact with Burger 54 was at 0245 hours in the vicinity of (GC) WD600870 (Lat/Long 17.0665156°, 105.5638724°) over Laos.  At 0320 hours a communications search was started for the aircraft, with an active search starting at 0522 hours.

On 2 December 1972 aircraft parts were located on a beach in the vicinity of (GC) ZD060160 in South Vietnam.  Analysis of these parts indicates that they were from Burger 54, that the aircraft crashed (most probably at sea), and that the crew was onboard at the time of the crash.  It was believed that the crew could not have survived this crash.

Vietnamese witnesses and reports say that the aircraft was shot down with 15 rounds of 12.7mm machine gun fire by militia in Phu Trach.

 

This is not a photo of 67-0092, but of another 430TFS Aardvark deployed during Constant Guard.

 

F-111A.jpg

Edited by Cameron Lynch
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23 hours ago, IAGeezer said:

 I would like to suggest 1 or 2 of the grey/white pre-production birds, and add that 63-9767 was all-metal, and 65-5704 was white/grey with a black radome.

 

 

THIS!  In 1/72 please.  

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I don’t know if this has been discussed in detail, but the -A models that deployed to Thailand in 1968 Combat Lancer & in 1972 Constant Guard had a different SEA Camo pattern then the later -D, E, F models.  Compare the scheme of the above pic to Cannon, UH, & LN birds.  Colors are the same but the -A pattern is different, in addition some -A models if not all have a black anti-glare panel in front of the windscreen.  Can someone who was at Nellis, Korat, Takhli, or Mt. Home confirm this.  I think the -D  models had a harder edge on the colors than the -E & -F which had softer edges.  

 

John

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13 hours ago, IAGeezer said:

Also, IIRC, the Combat Lancer birds had undersides painted OD green.

Mr. Rouch over on cybermodeler has an in-depth build of an early combat lancer jet which he identifies the first F-111’s in country indeed had green bellies but not OD. It was a continuation of the medium green used on the top side. Later on they went to the black belly.

Its about half way down in the article.

https://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/builds/hb/build_hb_80348.shtml

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6 hours ago, Hooker169 said:

Mr. Rouch over on cybermodeler has an in-depth build of an early combat lancer jet which he identifies the first F-111’s in country indeed had green bellies but not OD. It was a continuation of the medium green used on the top side. Later on they went to the black belly.

Its about half way down in the article.

https://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/builds/hb/build_hb_80348.shtml

 

But I've got bottles of OD stacked up around here!!!

 

Thanks for pointing that out, I can use all the help I can get!  

 

That is one great write-up....

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Completely agree with the comments above regarding the inclusion of Combat Lancer and Constant Guard/Linebacker II birds.

 

I did build the F-111A a year or two back in the grey/white colour scheme and it looks superb. How about 63-9775  which was used for cold weather trials, it had a red horizontal band on the tail fin and wore the AFSC badge on the left side of the forward fuselage, and an ASD badge on the right.

 

Personally I have a soft spot for the 366th TFW based at Mountain Home with the MO code, SuperScale did release a decal sheet aeons ago containing 'Spirit of Idaho' which was the Wing Commander's aircraft.

 

It would be great to have one of the NASA operated F-111A aircraft included however I think I am correct in saying that they all flew with highly modified wings which would be way beyond my ability to convert :crying:

 

Michael

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4 hours ago, Ghostbase said:

 

...How about 63-9775  which was used for cold weather trials, it had a red horizontal band on the tail fin and wore the AFSC badge on the left side of the forward fuselage, and an ASD badge on the right...

 

Whoa! I like test birds. Do you have a photo of this aircraft?

 

Bob at Sierra Scale

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4 hours ago, Dutch said:

How about a 366th TFW F-111A from Mountain Home AFB circa late 1970s? 

 

3 hours ago, KursadA said:

I bought the Don Logan book a couple days ago; and it has a lot of inspirational material for F-111A subjects. A Mountain Home based example will certainly be on the sheet.

 

Yes and YES!  Good news Kursad.  My vote would be for a 389th Bird from Moubtain Home.  

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Kursad, I have both the Logan (Schiffer) title and the Stafrace (Warpaint) title with numerous color photos.Both excellent references.  And

On 3/24/2018 at 9:23 PM, Hooker169 said:

I keep coming across these sexy bare metal “A” models, good lawd they’re hot!

General Dynamics : F-111AGeneral Dynamics, F-111A, Aardvark

 

I love those skinny ties!  I want one!

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I'd like to see Nellis AFB jets.  Growing up in Las Vegas, they were always quite a site coming up initial with their wings swept back.  As young kids, we were sure they were "spy jets" - because of the black bellies :)  One of the kids on my Little League team had a dad Lt. Col George Peterson (?) who was flying them at Nellis - and got us a tour of one.  Might as well have been looking at the Millennium Falcon...  Always had a soft spot for them ever since.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 year later...

Almost done with this sheet - it will be coming in November and I will show you the final artwork as soon as I finish shipping all preorders for the latest batch.

 

No preproduction / test birds in this one - sorry. But there are two Combat Lancer jets and at least one example of most early F-111A units including the 366th/474th and tail codes NA, NB, NC, ND, MO and HG. 

Edited by KursadA
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